Every Life Is on Fire

How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things

By: Jeremy England

Narrated by: Benjamin Isaac

Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

A preeminent physicist unveils a field-defining theory of the origins and purpose of life.

Why are we alive? Most things in the universe aren't. And everything that is alive traces back to things that, puzzlingly, weren't.

For centuries, the scientific question of life's origins has confounded us. But in Every Life Is on Fire, physicist Jeremy England argues that the answer has been under our noses the whole time, deep within the laws of thermodynamics. England explains how, counterintuitively, the very same forces that tend to tear things apart assembled the first living systems.

But how life began isn't just a scientific question. We ask it because we want to know what it really means to be alive. So England, an ordained rabbi, uses his theory to examine how, if at all, science helps us find purpose in a vast and mysterious universe.

In the tradition of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Every Life Is on Fire is a profound testament to how something can come from nothing.

©2020 Jeremy England (P)2020 Basic Books

Critic reviews

"A unique project that proposes to build a metaphorical bridge between the richness of mythic language and the precision of physical theory. Somewhere below this bridge flow the waters in which biological life first evolved and upon which England is an ecumenical-physicist river guide." (David Krakauer, president and William H. Miller professor of complex systems, Santa Fe Institute)

"In this sparklingly original book, Jeremy England tackles perhaps the biggest scientific question of all - what is life, and how did it emerge from inanimate matter? With crystal clear explanations of deep concepts such as reductionism and emergence, or the fluctuation theorem from non-equilibrium statistical mechanics (who knew that could be done?), the book offers a heady intellectual smorgasbord. It's a delight to read, not only for its charming content, but, because, much like the Hebrew scriptures interwoven throughout the text, the prose flows with a poetic rhythm. I couldn't put it down." (Ard Louis, University of Oxford)

Brilliant perspective!

I enjoyed the attempt at bridging the so called dispute between religion and science. As a lay person I could easily follow the ideas, but would have enjoyed more technical accounts from physics.

Misleading title

This book more properly should’ve been titled in such a way as to tell the reader that it is mostly about his personal need to tie together biblical scriptures with the laws of physics and thermodynamics. If it had been, it would’ve saved me the time I spent on it.

biblical references add nothing

I was hesitant to listen to this book once I realized the biblical scriptures were going to be a central theme, but I decided to give it a go because I had heard the author interviewed on a podcast and found him really engaging and his field of research of thermodynamics and the emergence of life really interesting. The book however was pretty boring and the biblical references did not add depth or understanding, they felt forced and altogether unnecessary.

misleading title and content

I don't believe that the content of this book has much to do about physics it was more or less an outline in Jewish theology